WWII Tech Pubs Briefing

Written by
Duane Godwin

A SA-L 34 L/72 anti-tank team picks off the lead vehicle, a SdKfz 232 armored car, of a Panzer reconnaissance unit while covering the retreat of French forces during Fall Rot (Case Red), the second stage of the German invasion of France.

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Overview

The Canon léger de 25 antichar (antitank 25 light cannon) SA-L modèle 1934 L/72 was the first proper anti-tank gun in the French Army.  After World War I, the army began planning a specification for an anti-tank gun.  In 1921, it decided upon a weapon of between 15-mm (0.59-in) and 37-mm (1.46-in) caliber that could serve as both anti-aircraft and anti-tank gun and which could be mounted in an aircraft. 

Development took longer than expected and as time passed, the specifications improved.  In 1924, the army stipulated that the gun penetrate 30 mm (1.18 in) of armor at 400 m (437 yd).  Hotchkiss and APX each proposed guns in 1926, but only the Hotchkiss design passed the 1928 penetration requirement upgrade to 40 mm (1.57 in) of armor at 1,000 m (1,094 yd), and so it won the contract.

 Finally adopted in 1934, the 3,000 25-mm (0.98-in) guns Hotchkiss produced were the most numerous anti-tank guns in the French Army in 1940.  After the all-mechanized British Expeditionary Force arrived in France and adopted the SA-L 34 L/72, it found the gun too fragile to be towed behind its trucks.  The guns had to be carried on the vehicles instead.  Even more serious, the 25-mm (0.98-in) caliber was simply too small to deal with armor at long ranges.  The SA-L 34 L/72 was effective against all German light and medium tanks at 300-400 m (330-440 yd) and could destroy a Panzer IV at close range, but 300 m (330 yd) was too close to fight tanks armed with heavy machine guns, and many anti-tank crews paid the price.

During the Battle of France, the Wehrmacht used captured SA-L 34 L/72s instead of the less effective PaK36 guns and to replace its own losses.  After the June armistice, Germany forced France to surrender its remaining anti-tank weapons.  Germany used SA-L 34 L/72s - renamed the PaK 112(f) - as second-line weapons in Russia and sold them to allies, including Finland.

The 25-mm gun was used in the AMD Panhard 178 armored cars, and in a few AMR ZT3 tank destroyers (based on the AMR 35 chassis).  The Vichy Army hid some 25 anti-tank guns in France, and General Weygand also organized the concealment of all anti-tank weapons in French North Africa.  It is possible that SA-L 34 L/72 guns were used during Operation Torch, and during the Tunisian campaign against the Germans.

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Specifications